Every Monday, football fans can go to NBCSports.com to read Peter King’s Football Morning in America or his old Monday Morning Quarterback column in Sports Illustrated. Fans go to that column to check out King’s latest interview or any news that he is able to find before anyone else does.
On The Tony Kornheiser Show last week, King was a guest and both he and Kornheiser dove into how they got their careers started and some advice they give to high school and college kids that want to get into journalism
King wanted to work as a journalist ever since he was in 5th Grade and there was one writer he met in high school that he always wanted to be like.
“I kind of wanted to be the next Peter Gammons once I saw him in high school,” said King. “I was driven to be as smart in something as Peter Gammons was in baseball. Over the years, in a weird way, I write a column on Monday this past week that was 11,883 words and that’s almost Gammons-esque. In essence, isn’t that what Gammons did in the Boston Globe?”
If you’re a fan of King’s work, he says there is one team and one coach you have to thank. It goes back to his time at The Cincinnati Enquirer.
“I was incredibly lucky that in 1984 I covered the Cincinnati Bengals. Sam Wyche was crazy in a good way and he basically would tell me anything I wanted to know about everything with the team. I sat there and watched practice that first training camp with Paul Brown probably 30 times. I was an expert in this team after 3-4 months…I just thought this is really a fun thing to do. I loved football and it’s a fun thing to do. The Bengals of 1984 got me into it.”
During training camp, King has had the opportunity to interview Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Patrick Mahomes and he told Kornheiser that still excites him today.
“I walked away from Tampa Bay training camp last Wednesday with a real spring in my step because I think I will be the only guy in our business to get Tom Brady 1-on-1 in this training camp a week after getting Aaron Rodgers 1-on-1, a week after getting Patrick Mahomes 1-on-1. Those are the things that still thrill me. To get the story that other people want to get. That’s what appeals to me and it still does to this day. I’m 64 years old but you tell me here’s $10,000 or here’s 20 minutes with Tom Brady, guess what I’m taking?”
While accomplishing so much in his career so far, King is still out there getting the scoops before most of the top writers in the business, which makes his columns weekly a must-read.
